Van Den Hul what is the best cart ?

IMO, there is nothing at all to be worried about with a VdH cartridge per se. However, the problem in recommending one vs another is that there are SO many variations on any of the basic themes. For example, there are at least a half dozen or more variations of the Colibri alone. And since they are hand made one might expect sample to sample variation, to add to the confusion. I owned a low output copper coil Colibri, and it was very nice, for what that's worth. In general, I have consistently found that high output MCs do not sound as good as the low output version of that same cartridge, if that helps. For example, HO version of ZYX UNI not as good as LO version. Sometimes, you just have to take a shot in the dark and try something for yourself. Reviews in commercial publications are utterly useless, too.

There seems to be a misconception in regards to the VdH stylus. VdH only designed the stylus. Fitz Gyger is the manufacture of that design. That's why it is referred to the FG/1, FG/II, and the 'S'.
BTW: The FG/II and the 'S' are not 'improvements' to the FG/I. The latter designs were only to facilitate scrap reduction for the manufacturing process.
Regards,

I am pleased with the sound of my Colibri xgp lightweight version .38mv on my VPI 12.7 arm. Harry @ VPI told me that it is one of the few arms that are a good match with the lightweight. Can't say that I've had tons of carts on my table, but it is head & shoulders above the ZYX Airy 3 and Allnic Puritas carts that I've used in the same rig. IME, vdh provides excellent value and very high end performance.

The comment about sibilance is a system matching issue. This one of the most revealing treble carts and some phono stages & cables are not transparent enough to let the beauty of the vdh treble shine. With a well matched system, solo violin etc. will be hard to beat. The Colibri is also dynamically explosive when the music calls for it, with transient speed that makes drums very lifelike.

On the downside, it's not very forgiving of beatup LPs even if well-cleaned.

The comment about "short cantilever" confuses me, because at least with the lightweight version, their is not much of a body per se, and it looks like a long cantilever to me. I'm always careful because it looks like the cantilever is hanging further down than on some other carts. Cheers,
Spencer

Andy some cartridges and arms together do not have synergy,maybe the people who were wowed by the colibri had the synergy and maybe those who were not wowed did not. There is not one cartridge that I know that has synergy with every arm built.
As far as quality control I have heard of problems and it happens,buy from someone who will exchange it no questions asked or refund your money.

The main problem is not quality control, the problem is to buy a cartridge and be sure that if you've got a problem the manufacturer will really do the best to resolve your problem and it's not the case at all with some manufacturers. It's always easy for them to say that you are not able to adjust your cartridge or your tonearm is not the good one.
I had a problem with a high end cartridge that couldn't read more than 50µm, the manufacturer didn't make anything for me.... and is was not a hand made Van Den Hul